Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has spent the better part of the last two weeks being attacked for what Democratic critics call "failed leadership."

Rep. Ted "Cancún" Cruz (R-TX) infuriated his state so much that his approval has fallen 20 percent among Republican voters. There aren't updated polling reports on Abbott, but anger against him grew in the state, the Washington Post reported, even as power was being restored to frigid Texans.

On CNN Wednesday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) tore into Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) for his conspiracy theory-laden rant earlier in the week blaming a small group of anti-Trump "agent provocateurs" for orchestrating violence at the otherwise "festive" Capitol riot in January.

"Johnson just said he has no regrets, let me repeat, no regrets about using a hearing yesterday in Congress to promote a wild conspiracy theory that, in his words, 'fake protesters' instigated the Capitol riot on January 6th," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "How disturbing is that to you to hear that from a United States senator?"

On Wednesday, during a debate in the Ohio House of Representatives on a bill to allow lawmakers to veto pandemic orders from the state health department, GOP state Rep. Diane Grendell defended a hands-off approach to public health, by arguing that Ohio's Amish community was able to "cull the herd" by letting the virus infect them.

"The Amish in our community ... they refused to wear masks. They refused to because they believe in God, they have that faith in God," said Grendell, who has previously spread conspiracy theories that the state health department's COVID-19 death statistics have been "corrupted."